There was an ok turn-out, but the food was fantastic!
The Theme: Your Grandmother's Kitchen
We all had to bring a dish or two that our grandmothers or great-grandmothers or great-great-grandmothers, etc would've made on at least a semi-regular basis. The foods of our heritages.
I did smoked pork hock in sauerkraut with bacon-onion perogies.
My grandmother, et al. is Ukrainian :)
Here's the details of the curing and smoking of the pork!
The hock is the ankle/lower shank part of the hog.
Sometimes confused with trotters/pig's feet.
These ones were from our hog this fall, the skin was removed when I opened the package :(
For the brine I used:
Whole Juniper Berry
Whole Allspice
Whole Clove
Whole Yellow Mustard Seed
Bay Leaf
Brown Sugar
Kosher Salt
InstaCure #1
The seasonings were combined with 1litre of water and brought to a boil.
The brine then went in the bowl (minus pork hock) and went outside to cool off.
When cool the pork went in and sat in the fridge for about 18hrs.
"Charcuterie", where I got the recipe from, recommended over night for hocks.
The hocks are then hot smoked using charcoal and apple wood...
NOTE: while they were smoking I was inside making perogies :)
DELICIOUS!
I could've eaten them right there.
Instead, they got covered in sauerkraut (that I admit should've rinsed off more :( ) and some water and put in the oven to braise for a bit.
For dinner I shredded the meat off the bone and mixed it in with the kraut.
Much easier for everyone to get a taste of everything!
Bacon Onion Perogies
While most people are aware that cheddar perogies are NOT traditional, it was still a bit strange to not have them at dinner.
According to my mother, cottage cheese with potato is the traditional filling. Cottage cheese can be made on the stove top with fresh (raw) milk. Easy for peasant folk to do :)
How To Eat?: I would take a bit of kraut with hock and piece of perogie. Yum-Yum!
(yes, I'm a food "mixer")
Our other foods included Filipino and -unknown- Asian cuisine!
I'm afraid I don't have the ethic names for the foods either (bad food blogger!)
Chicken Adobo, Mira
Caramelized Springrolls with Banana and Jackfruit, Mira (traditionally made with Plantain)
Salad Rolls (and peanut sauce which I don't have a picture of), and I can't remember the name of the guy who made them RIGHT IN FRONT OF US ;) Came prepared with everything ready to go!
** See Mira's Comment for More Info! :D
The next food adventure... Food Swap! Saturday Feb 18th!
(and I'm going ice fishing with my sisters this weekend, but that doesn't count as a food event until we catch something...)
What a brilliant idea for a get together. Love the food heritage recipes and stories. The pork hocks look incredible - as do the other dishes.
ReplyDeleteThere's some blog love for you. I know just how you feel.
XO
V
yum, love pork hocks, sauerkraut and perogies. makes for a wonderful meal
DeleteNice one, Deb!
ReplyDeleteAs per your request, the Filipino dishes were Chicken Adobo, a traditional (shall we say, National) dish of the Philippines consisting of sweet, savoury, and sour flavours. Super-traditional flavours usually consist of chicken thighs and pork, potatoes, tomato sauce, onions, plenty of garlic, cracked black peppercorns and bay leaves, soy sauce and vinegar. Think of it as the ultimate meat-and-potato dish of the tropics. DEEELICIOUS.
The Turon (banana spring rolls) are a street food sold as "merienda" (snacks) and consist of plantain/saba bananas rolled in brown sugar, tucked in a spring roll wrapper alongside a slice of jackfruit, and fried with a crunchy caramelization of brown sugar. The whole thing gets even better once it cools down, believe it or not.
Vinse, photographer extraordinaire (check out his work at http://www.vinsonlim.com/blog) brought home the flavours of his mom's Vietnamese cooking with Gỏi Cuốn, Vietnamese salad rolls, with a delicious tangy peanut sauce. The fillings consisted of rice noodles, fresh cilantro, and slices of an exquisitely-marinated pork meatloaf, all freshly wrapped up in rice paper. It was soooo cool to see that being assembled right in front of us! This could be the next big "Sushi Party"-kinda thing. As an aside, his family also owns the delicious Lan's Asian Grill over by NAIT, check out the review: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/lans-asian-grill-edmonton. Tasty times.
His lovely girlfriend Katrina brought over some delicious homemade pastries, one made even moreso authentic in that her mum made it! Homemade Apple Pie, with a crust that could shame you. SHAME YOU. Exquisite. And those Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies that she grew up on, what a nice ending to a great potluck.
Well done, kids. Prepare for even more success next round.
EXCELLENT! I was going to try and work all this into the blog post, but I'll just put in a note referring to your comment lol
Delete(and it's not hard to shame me when it comes to crusts... pies are my enemy :P lol)
and i didn't get pictures of the desserts either. Next time!
How can I get in on this supper club! I love food and meeting new people! will you email me next time you have a supper club? please? dare2discover at gmail.com
ReplyDeleteThe next is April 7th! (i had March 3rd here earlier... that was wrong and very silly of me!)
DeleteI'll send you an e-vite!
This looks very delicious!
ReplyDeleteAny idea what type of store I should go to for Instacure? I want to try curing a few items, tho will be boneless versions due to religious diet considerations of one of my friends :)
I bought mine online, but if you go to any -good- butcher shop they should be able to tell you where to find it locally.
DeleteIt's also known as pink salt.